Nose Job Proves Insufficient To Keep Caddy Olds From Crusher's Jaws

Sometimes you need to Cadillac 80s GM heap from break-ins, and sometimes you just need to make your Cadillac 80s GM heap shorter. The junkyard is a wonderful place to see all manner of last-ditch backyard repairs... repairs that were ultimately unsuccessful. For example, this car, which was apparently involved...

May 19, 2024

Citroen SM Engine Removal? No Problem!

By the time this video was shot, Parts I through XXXVII of Citröen SM Engine Removal Hell had already taken place, and we're just going to see the glorious final act. Note that the entire front body has been removed, and it's obvious that getting that Maserati V6 out is...

May 19, 2024

Safe Steering Components Are For Cowards!

When isn't , he's working behind the parts counter of a steering-parts supplier. That means he sees a fair cross-section of not-so-safe modifications to vehicle steering systems, and he's found a site with some of the scarier ones. Faced with a steering shaft that's a little too short? Well, actually,...

May 19, 2024

Hood Scoop Adds Dignity, Top Fuel Power To LeMons Volvo

Not long after I , I attended a barbecue at a friend's house. Friend's husband, Darren, is a motorcycle mechanic, so naturally all the gearheady guys gravitated to the garage to look at grimy machinery and listen to The Atomic Bitchwax on the garage boombox... and then I saw it....

May 19, 2024

One Maddening Problem Solved, 297 To Go!

It seemed like such a great idea a few months ago: Over here, we had a $100 Volvo 244. Over there, a free Ford 302 engine. A little welding, a bit of cutting, some duct tape, and voila! Easy for the , you betcha! Actually, we all knew we were...

May 19, 2024

Wrecked Civic + Drag Bike = El Civico!

When we had the , reader stunned us all with his description of El Civico, a 1999 Honda Civic converted to motorcycle-haulin' cartruck. Well, anything that cool is sure to trigger weeks of relentless hounding from us for the whole story, and Buckyworld was kind enough to oblige. Make the...

May 19, 2024

Welcome To Low-Budget Race Car Wiring Hell!

So we on our V8-ized Volvo race car, but what about electrical stuff? The factory wiring, switches, and instruments weren't going to work with our new engine. In fact, we'd torn out every scrap of wire in the car, preferring to start with a blank electrical slate. As the creator...

May 19, 2024

Another Advantage To Racing A Volvo: Free Parts Car!

Now that the 24 Hours of LeMons , I find it necessary to present some more evidence to show that the V8-ified Volvo 240 is Your Best Race Car Value, even though it means giving away some tricks to our real competition (i.e., the other teams driving Swedish steel). You...

May 19, 2024

What Makes A Race Car Faster? A Fiero Wing, Of Course!

When we to our V8 Volvo LeMons racer, it immediately became apparent that something was missing from the picture. But what? Walking around to the rear of the car, it hit us: we lacked a wing! Skeptics might point out that a wing would be aerodynamically meaningless on a brick-shaped...

May 19, 2024

What Are Your Ten Favorite Wrenching Albums?

We've talked about the , but what about the albums you want to listen to while you're systematically removing all the skin from your knuckles on your Hell Project? The music that just sounds best when played on the oil-spattered beater boombox that lives in the garage? This question came...

May 19, 2024

Real $500 Race Cars Have Manual Transmissions... And Inner-Tube Shifter Boots!

When we started out to build a for the May 10-11 race, most of the team members assumed we'd be using the good ol' C4 automatic transmission. You know, automatics are way easier to swap, with no troublesome clutch linkage to futz with. But Crew Chief Hellhammer (formerly known as...

May 19, 2024

Want A 5-Speed Crown Victoria?

We all thought from a Lightning F-150 into a 2000 Ford Crown Vic was pretty cool, but some Panther owners might want to take on a less ambitious project that still makes our cars a lot more fun to drive. Say, grabbing the T-45 transmission out of a Mustang and...

May 19, 2024

Broken Parts And Bleeding Knuckles At The 24 Hours Of Lemons

We've seen the , but what about the ones that spent more time in the pits than on the track? Our pit space was sandwiched between a couple of never-say-die teams: the Snowspeeder Pilots Association, whose MR2's engine ate its rod bearings, and Team SSPP22, whose Volvo 780 Bertone broke...

May 19, 2024

Junkyard Electric Fuel Pump Options Dwindle For Carbureted Cars

Digging through one of my many (too many) boxes of old car parts, in search of a coulda-sworn-I-had-one Ford V8 emblem for the , I dug up this greasy relic from my past. Back in the days when I didn't let lack of cash prevent me from keeping an alarmingly...

May 19, 2024

DIN Rail And Smurf Tube: How To Wire Your Race Car On The Cheap

As the inches ever closer to readiness, team captain has decided that the duct-tape-and-speaker-wire electrical system isn't going to be very reliable on the track. Time to tear out all the scary old stuff and start over fresh! Now, they could have followed my example and spent about 88,000 hours...

May 19, 2024